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German Lebkuchen Cake with White Chocolate Frosting

This moist Christmas cake takes its cues from the flavors and spices found in the classic Lebkuchen cookie. It's brushed with an orange-scented honey syrup, frosted with a creamy white chocolate icing and then surrounded by sliced almonds.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 9-inch square baking pan with 2-inch-high sides. Line bottom with waxed paper. Butter paper. Dust pan with flour. Using electric mixer, beat first 8 ingredients in large bowl until fluffy. Mix in reserved 2 tablespoons minced orange peel. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift flour, baking soda and baking powder into medium bowl. Mix half and half and lemon juice in small bowl. Beat dry ingredients alternately with half and half mixture into butter mixture, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Mix in currants. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. (Cake will not rise to top of pan.) Cool cake 20 minutes. Run small sharp knife around pan sides to loosen. Turn cake out onto rack; cool. Peel off paper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover syrup and cake separately and let stand at room temperature.)

For frosting:

Melt chocolate in top of double boiler over simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth. Cool to barely luke warm. Using electric mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until light. Add chocolate and 1/4 cup honey syrup and beat until smooth and light. Chill until thick enough to spread, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes.

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Recent Reviews

I used 1 stick of butter and 1/4 cup of oil. I also only baked the cake for 30 minutes. This cake was very moist and light but I found it to be a bit salty. I would make it again though.

jrussell1 /

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As many other reviewers note, this cake is somewhat dry and does not need 50 minutes in the oven. More like 30 to 40 at most. Also not sure what they think you are going to do with 3 cups of toasted almonds. Try about one cup, maybe 1 1/2 tops. Added cardamom to the spice mix. The frosting rocks.

chikde from Middleton, WI /

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I am an American who has lived in Bavaria Germany for over 30 years. This means every Christmas I get the real Lebkuchen, but this cake blew my German husband away and since then this is the only thing he wants at Christmas as does the rest of my family.
thanks

JReithmayer from Germany /

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The first time I made this cake the
frosting was to-die-for, and the orange
basting sauce was great, but I found
the cake to be dry and needing more
spice. I was desperate for a show stopper dessert to take to a German theme dinner party, so my husband said "Can't you just increase the spices and add an egg or something?" I did add extra yolk, and also modified the technique a bit: cream the butter with a mixer until light and fluffy before
adding other ingredients. Then cream
the sugar with the butter until light
and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time (I added an extra yolk) beating well
after each. Then continue with the recipe, adding more of the spices. The white chocolate frosting is expensive so you may want to experiment with an unfrosted cake the first time. This is now my special occasion cake. The flavors, particularly the frosting, are great!

yozampj from San Jose, CA /

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So many issues with this cake. I
cooked it for 30 minutes, following
the advice of other reviewers, and
even then it was too dry, although
the basic flavor was good. There
was way too much frosting, and I
thought it had a horrible taste -- I
might consider trying it with dark
chocolate. There wasn't enough of
the honey syrup, and the minced peel
was too chunky -- if I make it
again, I will grate the peel right
off the orange, rather following the
directions in the recipe. What a
disappointment.